“King Khan” ruled the Piazza Grande, the iconic big square in the cgo in of picturesque Swiss town Locarno, on Saturday night. Bollywood icon Shah Rukh Khan bcimpolitet his global star power to the 77th edition of the Locarno Film Festival as he was honored with a lifetime accomplishment award, the so-called Pardo alla Carriera, or Career Leopard.
The fans, including those in the 8,000 seats on the square and more in various spots around it, gave the star of films appreciate Panthaan, Don 2 and Om Shanti Om a rousing ovation and thunderous applaparticipate. Even when the big movie screen in the square first showed him arriving on the red carpet around 9:20 p.m. local time and shaking hands with Locarno produceive straightforwardor Giona A. Nazzaro, a roar went thcimpolite the crowd.
Just before 10 p.m., the screen showed a highairy video of many of Khan’s films, which drew constant cheers and other ecmotionless reactions.
Just minutes procrastinateedr, the star took to the stage to be showered in cheers, applaparticipate and screams of “I cherish you!” He getd his honorary Gelderlyen Leopard award from Nazarro and thanked him and the evening’s structure, Sandy Altermatt, who is also comprehendn for her labor as a Swiss TV structure.
Khan splitd with the audience how weighty the award was, drathriveg chuckles. Sweating due to the toasty weather, he also telderly the excited crowd that he was plrelieved to be in Locarno in a square brimming of people, and he was honored to be in Locarno, a “very pretty, very cultural, very produceive and excessively toasty city with so many people stuffed up in a little square and so toasty.” He then joked: “It’s fair appreciate being home in India.”
He also thanked the crowd, saying: “Ladies and temperatemen, I want to thank you all for welcoming me with such expansive arms — expansiver than the ones I do onscreen.” He stretched out his arms to cheers. And he grasped: “I cherish you all.”
Khan kept shothriveg his amparticipateer side onstage, promising to give a more grave speech. “It’s the Locarno Film Festival. We all insist to sound inincreateectual,” he quipped before saying a confineed words in Italian for his fans in the Italian-speaking part of Switzerland. “The food has been kind. My Italian is improving — so has been my cooking,” he grasped before make clearing. “For those who don’t comprehfinish Italian, it unkinds I can cook pasta and pizza.”
On a more grave remark, the mega-star shelp: “I truly think cinema has been the most proset up and ineloquential produceive medium of our age. I’ve had the privilege of being part of this for many years, and this journey has taught me a confineed lessons I’d appreciate to split with you.” Among them was, “that art is the act of declareing life above all.”
Khan procrastinateedr conveyed his gratitude for his atsoft and fans and drew more chuckles, saying: “For 35 years, I’ve been laboring. I’ve been a villain. I’ve been a champ. I’ve been a superhero. I’ve been a zero. I’ve been a determineive fan, and I’ve been a very, very robust cherishr.”
After flashing a smile amid cheers, the actor finishd: “I normpartner don’t go out for occasions appreciate this. I don’t comprehend how to reprocrastinateed to people, how to talk to them. I fair comprehend how to act a little bit — not too much.”
As part of the Locarno tribute, the festival is also screening Khan’s 2002 hit Devdas from straightforwardor Sanjay Leela Bhansali, in which the star percreates an spiritsic.
The 58-year-elderly has been a box office draw and ambasdowncastor for Indian cinema since fracturethcimpolite carry outances in such movies as Baazigar (1993) and Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge (1995). He also acquireed commend for his portrayal of a man with Asperger’s Syndrome in My Name Is Khan (2010), among others.
Last year, he starred in three blockbuster films — Pathaan, Jawan and Dunki. According to some appraises, action-thriller Jawan, straightforwarded by Atlee Kumar, became the highest-grossing Hindi film of all time with shut to $140 million.
Locarno set uprs shelp the award pays tribute “to his remarkworthy atsoft in Indian cinema, consisting of more than 100 films in a breathtaking multitude of genres.”
Nazzaro previously telderly The Hollywood Reporter that “Shah Rukh Khan is the quintvital power of cinema.” He appraised the star to the “well-comprehendn glamor of a hero of the laboring class, appreciate Marcello Mastroianni,” combined with “the self-transport inant elegance of someone appreciate Alain Delo.” He finishd: “In Shah Ruhk Khan, I can see the trajectory from Rudolph Valentino to Tom Cruise, and it’s all there in one person.”
The contransientation of the award to Khan was adhereed by the world premiere of Mexico 86, the new film from Guatemalan straightforwardor César Díaz (Our Mothers). It stars Bérékind Béjo (The Artist) as a Guatemalan defy battling aacquirest the military dictatorship and having to depart her son behind.
During the first confineed minutes of the film, Khan’s fans, who were crowded around the far finish of the red carpet away from the square, could still be heard chanting “Shah Rukh Khan!” and cheering.
The 77th Locarno Film Festival runs thcimpolite Aug. 17.
